Building SMMEs Growth Drivers Rights for Small Business Innovations for Economic Diversification and
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It’s not government that creates jobs; it’s small businesses. As early as 1982, most government administrations on the continent chose economic diversification because dependence on capital intensive ( extractive mining operations) and land intensive ( beef ranching) had limited benefits for the majority of their populations in terms of employment creation. An introspection of these circumstances in our African context further affirms that it is hard to achieve economic growth, diversification and privatization with a human face through primary export- led growth alone, for instance, through extractive mining operations and, or beef ranching. Various studies reveal that small businesses face a number of difficulties in using, for example, the Intellectual Property ( IP) system, such as a limited knowledge of the IP system, lack of clarity about its relevance to their business strategy, the system’s complexity, and from the perspective of a small business – the system is expensive and/ or time- consuming to use.
Low awareness of the system limits the exposure small businesses have to the IP system and their ability to use effectively all the elements offered by the IP system, including not just patents but also utility models, trademarks, industrial designs, trade secrets, patent databases, copyright and other Intellectual Property Rights ( IPRs). In the Southern African Development Community ( SADC) economies, currently Botswana and South Africa are categorized as broadly TRIPs- compliant. Also, only two more economies from Africa South of the Saharan, i. e., Kenya and Senegal fall into this category. Therefore, the new impulse towards more stringent implementations of Intellectual Property Rights ( IPRs) is evident and presents a major challenge for the SADC economies. Yet, SADC does not have a collective policy framework or regime for the protection of Intellectual Property Rights ( IPRs) for small businesses. Nevertheless, there exists a regional co- operation on patent and trademark for 14 Anglophone African states, in the form of African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation ( ARIPO).
Despite the foregrounding, only six SADC states namely: Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe are members of ARIPO. Also, only eleven ARIPO members i. e. Botswana, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe are signatories to the Harare Protocol ( IDS 199: 3) at the time of writing this article.
SMALL BUSINESSES AS THE BACKBONE OF OUR ECONOMY
However, while there is increasing recognition of the significance of small businesses, as well as the need for appropriate intellectual asset management for them across most SADC economies, there are few regulatory frameworks or specific instruments directed to small businesses. This is in part due to the pace of technological innovation, which often exceeds the time it takes for policy makers to create appropriate responses to the changing landscape of intellectual property. Intellectual Property Rights can be instrumental for small businesses to protect and build on their innovations as well as positioning themselves competitively vis- à- vis larger enterprises out there in the global markets and for gaining access to revenues.
Intellectual Property Rights can play a vital role in signaling the current and prospective value to investors, competitors and partners as well as accessing knowledge markets and networks. Additionally, IPRs open up new commercial pathways and segment existing markets for small businesses.
Narrow Definitions of Intellectual Property ( IP) and Intellectual Property Rights ( IPRs) Intellectual property rights are the rights given to persons over the creations of their minds. They usually give the creator an exclusive right over the use of his/ her creation for a certain period of time. Patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets are valuable assets of the company and understanding how they work and how they are created is critical to knowing how to protect them. Intellectual Property assets accrue to their owners through its business development and strategies: from product development to design, from service delivery to marketing, and from raising financial resources to exporting or expanding its business through licensing or franchising. Intellectual Property instills trust, confidence and loyalty to the consumers it markets.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
It is envisaged that current interventions and discussions from parties such as governments, international institutions and non- governmental agencies’ priority work plans, the private sector and development partners will assume center stage in driving national economic diversification and privatization discourse. Already, there is talk of creating a US$ 100 Billion economy by 2030 and one cannot factor in the role of the small enterprises in that espoused state. Whether by design or accident, adherents of the US$ 100 Billion economy have been silent on the potential role of a vibrant small business sector predicated on healthy doses of entrepreneurial spirit in unlocking the much- sought after double digit economic growth.
A DEARTH OF PROGRAMS, AND FEW EXISTING LACK COORDINATION
The SADC Development Finance Centre ( DFRC) was set up to play a pivotal and catalytic role in enhancing small businesses support at institutional level as well as direct foreign 0- 2 investment delivery capacity. Significant constraints have emerged despite the above. These are but not limited to: low capitalization and lack of collateral, lack of medium to long term finance for start- ups and business expansion. Regulations that favour only big businesses and discourage start- ups and SMMEs operations. Such as governments procurement policies. As a result, there is a dearth of programs, and the few that exist lack coordination to support African entrepreneurship.
CONCLUSION
Small businesses base their competitiveness on so called low order sources of competitiveness, that is to say, they are associated with low prices of the primary production inputs and to a limited extent on the higher order sources of competitiveness such as new technologies, in which information and communication technologies, ICT and Intellectual Properties, play a key role. According to research, the SMME’s sectors in the SADC region
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